Better Writing

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Check out how you can write better and more meaningful content here.

Tips and Ticks for Building Better Courses

I wanted to share some links for tips and tricks to building better courses.

Enjoy!

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/build-branched-e-learning-scenarios-in-three-simple-steps/

http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2008/02/5-ways-to-make-linear-navigation-more-interesting/

http://www.screenr.com/6Xv

http://www.screenr.com/bXv

http://www.articulate.com/blog/5-tips-for-working-with-multiple-choice-questions-in-quizmaker-09/

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/the-3-essential-questions-every-learner-wants-answered/

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/build-better-e-learning-courses-by-getting-rid-of-some-of-the-content/

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/how-to-add-scenarios-to-your-rapid-elearning-courses/

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/secret-to-creating-powerpoint-templates-for-elearning/

http://www.screenr.com/sdE

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/a-free-tool-free-graphics-to-simplify-your-e-learning-course-design

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/over-75-free-rapid-e-learning-resources/

http://www.articulate.com/blog/4-ways-to-build-interactive-courses-like-an-e-learning-guru/

http://daveperso.mediaenglishonline.com/2009/04/10/branching-scenarios/

http://daveperso.mediaenglishonline.com/2009/06/26/building-quizmaker-interactions/

http://www.screenr.com/lKW

http://daveperso.mediaenglishonline.com/

http://www.articulate.com/blog/

http://daveperso.mediaenglishonline.com/2008/06/30/using-raptivity-in-articulate-presenter/

If You've Highlighted Everything, You've Highlighted Nothing...

In many situations, an instructional designer will not be the person developing any given course. We often use a separate developer to create the animations or other treatments. In more than one case, I have worked with a developer that over-animated, or over-developed.

When every concept is equally treated and animated, how can the learner know which is most important? It becomes more difficult, and puts more responsibility on the learner to extract meaning, and can often leave them wondering if they guessed correctly.

The old adage "keep it simple stupid" is a very important design concept for a developer to grasp, and the best way to do that is to read through and understand the content.

At first glance, most content looks pretty straight forward. Each sentence can be animated without understanding the content (well, maybe a Google search here and there). But as the course progresses, and repeat concepts build upon each other, the developer may find themselves adding emphasis to concepts that aren't as important as others, and not creating consistency throughout the course.

A full read-through of the course will allow the developer to highlight the important messages and repeat concepts, and decide how they will be treated throughout. This will prevent them from adding as much animation and emphasis for supporting concepts that do not need as much attention. As a result, the learner can more effectively extract the important concepts, and retain the information based on the consistency and repetition presented throughout the course.

eLearning Journies

I recently read a very neat article entitled "Secret Handshakes of an ID." This article discusses "the importance of finding the "know 'em when we seen 'em" attributes for recognizing fellow ID practitioners when we encounter them on the long and winding road to enterprise learning." It also observes "that theoretical foundations guiding the study of the evolution of a field can fall awkwardly out of alignment with the evolution of a professional practice, particularly one so directly affected by the speed of technological change."

Check out the article here.

* Reference: Wagner, Ellen. Typad.com "eLearning Roadtrip." "Secret Handshakes of ID." April 2011.

A Lesson in Patience

"Even though everyone says that the world today moves faster than ever, with all our texting and IMing and DVRing and hyper multitasking, I have to say: Much of the time, it’s still not moving fast enough for me." -Lucinda Rosenfeld

I tend to read a lot of magazine articles. That quote was pulled from an article I recently came in Real Simple. It stuck with me because isn't it the truth?...

You should check it out. It's called A Lesson In Patience. It talks about how we get ahead of ourselves not only in our work lives but also in our personal lives. That we're supposed to take our A.D.D selves and knock our hasty ways down a notch or two.

Think about applying this to instructional design. If we focus more on specifics and details, if we slow ourselves down a bit, we will ensure better course quality, from course beginning through course end.

So let's try to nix our present day A.D.D tendencies as much as possible and kick ourselves back a peg or two. Enjoy the little things in life - both at work and at home. Better quality will surface all around.

Use Blank Slides in Articulate Quizmaker

Check out how to use blank slides in Articulate Quizmaker to your advantage.

Google Demo Slam & Animating Online

This past holiday season Google held its first "demo slam" designed as a tech demo to show the power of Google's free online tools and office doc offerings. One particular demo that I think any powerpoint user will find captivating is shown in the video below. Before you press play, consider that the entire animation was created online using Google's free presentation application.